


City of Demeter

by Anonymous



Category: Original Work
Genre: Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-27
Updated: 2015-02-28
Packaged: 2018-03-15 13:27:47
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 17,442
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3448847
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Demeter's held a grudge for centuries, and it could mean the end of Miami unless two mortals stop her.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Part I

 

> I was angry with my foe:  
>  I told it not, my wrath did grow.
> 
> William Blake, "The Poison Tree"

 

Demeter liked being furious. She wanted to relish in it. But being furious wasn't a way to sustain children.

She knew why she was raped. She was acting too much of a patriarch. Her brothers had expected her to shut up and bear miraculous children, not dictate whom and when her daughter could get married. So, behind Demeter's back, Kore was married off to her brother. And, to add insult to injury, she was raped in the stables of Oncius when she wanted to search for Kore and grieve over her loss.

Now she was pregnant with twins again. And one of them was a _horse._

The rape had turned Demeter into a literal Fury. Her chiffon was black and her body was covered in snakes. She wanted to do everything to her brothers. She'd chain up Hades. (No, wait, he wouldn't protest if he was chained up. Never mind.) She'd cover Poseidon in snakes and eels and delight in seeing his pain when he winced from the eel shocks. She'd find a way to dangle Zeus from the heavens. She'd enlist Kore and Hera to help her while she swung her golden sword near his body. Even if Zeus did escape and punish her, it wasn't like she could go to Tartarus. And she quite liked being around the common people rather than sit on a mechanical golden throne covered in ornate depictions of wheat and snakes on Olympus.

But she couldn't give birth, not as a Fury. Well, not for the human child.

As much as Demeter wanted the snakes to weave around her body until the end of time, they had to be washed away, along with the anger. There would be another time where she'd get her vengeance, where she'd get to be the head of household she was deprived of in the present. Months, years, decades, centuries—she could wait. She had the time.

Hecate was Demeter's aide while she was searching for Kore. When she saw the panic in Demeter's eyes, she said to Demeter "If ever you need a place to wash away your pain, go to the river Ladon."

Demeter was in pain, so the river Ladon it was, all the way in Arcadia. She headed there by foot. She could call her chariot from Olympus and fly there, but she couldn't do it, not as a Fury, not as a pregnant goddess, not yet.

As the snakes and the rage washed away in Ladon, she was sad to see them float away towards the Mediterranean. (If she could, she would've given them a home on Olympus.) But she swore she wouldn't forget Zeus' betrayal, Kore's rape or her own rape by Poseidon. She would avenge these three things in time.

 

The Roman state religions were shifting from paganism to Christianity. It was an opportunity for Demeter and her family to escape.

Before the oracles were closed down, Demeter, in disguise as a mortal, went to Delphi. Dodona was out of the question, since the oracle was dedicated to Zeus and Heracles. Going to the oracle dedicated to Zeus when you want to ask an oracle about your Zeus-less future was bad, but one partially devoted to a favorite son of Zeus was worse. And Heracles would to tattle to Zeus. Apollo, on the other hand, would be able to keep a secret, she hoped. Demeter worked with Artemis to ensure animals would be able to have enough nourishment to reproduce and give birth. Demeter also made sure some of Artemis' hunting nymphs could survive in the Grecian forests. Artemis and Apollo owed her a few.

Demeter was first in line, disguised in a black chiton. She made a pig sacrifice to the oracle. She was used to pig sacrifices. People sacrificed pigs to her during her mysteries. The oracle was pleased by her sacrifice and moved her to the front of the line.

When she approached the oracle, Demeter asked her: "I want to see what the future holds for my family."

Demeter knew what the oracle did next. The oracle chewed a laurel leaf before sitting on her throne, straddled over a volcanic crack. Nonsense came out of the oracle's mouth before she passed out. It reminded Demeter of when she first met the Cyclopes. In the battle against the Titans, they reinforced her golden sword. Although her sword was brilliant—it was a find from some unnamed, unknown Titan off the coast of Sicily, it never needed to be sharpened or replaced, and it never rusted—she recalled the Cyclopes ranting and raving they made them. Their erratic movements crept into her thoughts every so often. She always thought it was the volcanic fumes they worked around that caused them to be that way. Seeing the oracle babble confirmed that.

One of the oracle's priests came up to Demeter.

"Mayaimi."

"What's that?"

"That's what the oracle said. Mayaimi."

"You don't know what that is?"

The priest shook his head. "I wish I did. I hope you figure out what it is soon."

Demeter took in a sharp inhale and left the oracle as fast as she could without revealing her divinity.

 

The Roman _mundus Cereris_ was thought to be a portal to the Underworld. This particular portal was dedicated to Demeter. Few people went inside it during the assigned dates it was closed.

It was the only place Demeter's family could meet in secret, since the pit was nowhere near the true entrances of the Underworld and remotely far from Olympus.

Demeter's family was now down to three: Kore, renamed Persephone after her mother's secret birth name for the child; Plutus, the demigod who sacrificed his own mortality to become the god of Wealth, bringing prosperity to his mother's estate; and Arion, invited to live with Demeter after the death of his last master, Adrastus. Arion was now in the form of a 20-something man. Unlike Plutus, who was growing his hair and beard back out after conforming with the Roman standards of short hair and no beards, he already had long hair and a full beard.

Demeter had four mortal children and four immortal children. The mortal children all died before the Romans even reached power in Greece. The missing immortal child, Desponia, disappeared when the rest of the family (minus Arion at the time, who was still a war horse) tended to a family errand. The family never could find her before leaving Olympus. She was presumed…dead, for lack of better words.

"We're leaving," Demeter said. "Together. As the family we were meant to be."

"Mama, where are we going?" Plutus asked.

"I don't know. The oracle told me 'Mayaimi.' That was it."

Demeter's children looked at her, confused.

"I know 'Mayaimi' is a vague clue. But our society is changing. It's crumbling. We're not relevant anymore. We need to escape now or we'll be dragged into Zeus' caravan heading who knows where up north. There are gods there. I don't want to meet them. Also, if we follow Zeus' caravan, Persephone will still be bound in her marriage with Hades. We need to find this 'Mayaimi.' This is our chance to escape together. "

"I hate him so," Persephone whispered. "Too bad Adonis didn't like me enough to want to stay with me."

"It's a good thing," Demeter said. "I'm tired of fucking descendants of the gods and products of incest. I want a human. Or a few. Let me make my mind on a lover without the gods making fun of me for it."

"Someday, Mama, it will be war. I hope we don't have a human in tow when we fight. Even if you love them so."

"It will be war, my Destroyer," Demeter said, referring to Persephone. "I hope we can win. We'll know the lay of the land before they will. We will have the advantage. But there seems to be a _little_ problem."

Demeter looked at Arion.

"Did I do it right?"

Demeter nodded. "You did. But the last time I saw a dick this big was on Priapus. Well, his is bigger, but yours is…special."

"You worshipped the phallus at your mysteries, Mother."

"That's true, but the phallus we used wasn't as big as your member."

"Do you want me to make it smaller?"

"No, we'll cover that up with a longer chiton. You're not a wretched letch like Priapus. You won't be erect all the time. You shouldn't get into trouble, although you do possess a very dangerous tool. Use it responsibly. You might actually hurt someone."

"Yes, Mother."

Demeter covered up Arion and his penis with a chiton.

"I had hoped to travel with four of you, but that was not to be. The Fates made sure of it. Let's get out of here and see if we can find this 'Mayaimi.'"

 

It wasn't until 1976 when Demeter realized what Mayaimi was.

There was a news article about cocaine being stored on the ARC Gloria, a flagship from Colombia, in the _New York Times_. It was in the United States to celebrate its bicentennial with other tall ships.

Demeter and children were living in a home in the Hamptons. It wasn't Mayaimi, but it was isolated, away from New York City and the Hamptons traffic going there.

She had the _Times_ delivered to her home. Before her family began work on their crops, she'd read the paper. And then it hit her when she was reading the article about the ARC Gloria, when the name Miami appeared in the article.

Demeter had a room in her home where she kept four turtledoves in a large birdcage. She opened the birdcage and took out three of the turtledoves.

"Find my children and tell them to meet me at the table. We're selling the mansion."

 

"Miami?" Persephone was in a daze. She grabbed her head and put her elbows on the mansion's kitchen table. "Miami, Mama?"

Demeter nodded. "Remember when we thought living in Cleveland for about a year would bring on Poseidon and Zeus, and they never showed?"

All her children nodded.

"'Mayaimi.' The oracle was referring to Miami, _Florida._ Miami didn't exist when I talked to the oracle. That's why she referred to it as Mayaimi. It was the Native American tribe that gave the city its name. But she meant Miami."

"Do we have to go to Miami now? It's awful. It's older, retired mortals and Meyer Lanksy and drugs. It's _bleak_ , Mama."

"Persephone, I would've thought you would know moving to Miami would give us an advantage."

"It's becoming more prosperous, Sister," Plutus said. "Or so I believe."

"In a few years, Plutus. Not right now."

"We need to go Miami, Persephone," Arion said. "It's not glamorous now."

"Of course it's not, Arion," Persephone said. "The 50s have come and gone. No one cares about Miami anymore."

"Miami's not a tourist destination like Napa. We can make it seem like we're going to Cuba if going to Miami's so offensive to you. But we can use that to our advantage. If Mother's prophecy is true, and Poseidon and Zeus are going to find us in Miami, we can spend a few years getting to know the city. That way, we'll have the upper hand. We'll know where to hide and how to attack. And we can train more. This is a new world, a world where Mother has more respect now than she's ever had in Greece. We'll beat them."

"Exactly, Arion." Demeter patted his back. Persephone frowned.

"Cheer up, Persephone. You're still the mistress of the household. Arion doesn't care about taking your position."

Arion nodded.

Persephone sighed. "Let's move to Miami. Who knows? Maybe we'll live in Al Capone's old mansion there."

"You're not going to regret this, Persephone," Demeter said. "I promise."

 

Cyanopeplus House was a house (without a name) built in the 1940s on Hibiscus Island, back when the Latin Quarter Nightclub was still operating. It was still owned by a few people until the late 1970s, when the owner left Miami for the West Coast.

After it went on the market, Chloe Demetriou, a woman who looked like she could be in her 40s or so, bought the home for herself and her children, Averna, Aaron and Pete. Within months, they rebuilt the house so it could withstand hurricanes without losing its Art Deco look. It was notable for having two other things: one, the house was white, and two, the yard was covered in geckos. The geckos kept to Chloe's yard; the neighbors didn't complain.

Cyanopeplus House, save for its occupants, was a quiet house. No one visited anyone in the house. Neighbors weren't sure if the house was sold or not. But there was life in the house.

One day a photographer for _Architectural Digest_ drove by the home and saw Chloe planting grass in her front yard. The photographer pulled into Chloe's driveway and leaped out of her car.

"I can't believe this used to be Raphael Rohn's house," the photographer said.

Chloe stopped gardening. "Who?"

"Raphael Rohn. He used to be an architect in this area. He designed a few homes, including his own home here, but they're in decay or demolished now. This house is the last remaining architectural home of his in the area."

"They didn't tell me that when I bought the house."

"They didn't need to. You've done a great job of restoring the house. Who helped you?"

"My kids. We all live here. We've been nomads for a few years, and we've decided to settle down in Miami."

"Have you preserved Rohn's architecture inside?"

"We tried to, but there's a bit of a twist. It still looks remarkable inside, if you'd like to take a look."

A few months later, Chloe, her children and the home appeared in _Architectural Digest._ There was a focus on the contrasts in the house—the black railing on the white spiral staircase, the black frames over the white windows in the living room, the dining room with its green walls, many mirrors and its white table. The front and back yards were also highlighted by the magazine.

The _Architectural Digest_ feature lead to another feature focused on Chloe's gardens from _Better Homes & Gardens._

Chloe was flattered by the attention from the magazines. (Her neighbors still stayed away. There was something about her.) But she considered _Architectural Digest_ and _Better Homes & Gardens _a sign. War was coming.

 

Chloe started receiving guests.

The first guest had long black hair, sandals and surfing trunks on when he knocked on the door of Cyanopeplus House. He also had a gift-wrapped box in his hands. Neighbors peeked at Demeter's new guest through their windows.

"Great Goddess Demeter, I owe my career to you."

"Dionysus."

"I've come a long way to talk to you."

"Stop fucking around. You want me drunk so I can surrender to Zeus. You think I forgot about Hephaestus? I'm still hiding the secret that his father's Anatolian, wherever his real father is. I would've revealed it earlier if I knew Christianity was going to do the same thing."

Dionysus' mouth was ajar. "Yeah."

"Would you come in? There are mortals watching, and I need some privacy."

Dionysus came in and shut the door.

Then the lights went out in Cyanopeplus House.

The physical form she had taken dissipated. It reappeared, in shade form, around Dionysus.

"You tell Zeus to find me himself. Then you tell him to swing around, find Poseidon. I'll be waiting in Cyanopeplus House. I win, they leave the family alone for good. I don't want to be an Olympian if I have to be a good…whatever it is I have to be. I lose, I uproot from Miami and move closer to the family." Demeter's sword was around Dionysus' neck. "Now _go,_ or I spill ichor."

Dionysus ran when the shade wasn't around his body. The lights returned as well, and Demeter resumed human form.

After the guest left, neighbors told Chloe that her guests should wear clothes suitable for the neighborhood whenever they visited her.

Chloe shrugged. "I can't control when my guests come over. They're looking for _me_. If you thought he was bad, then my next guests are going to be a lot worse. No, don't call the police. I'm not a drug lord or anything. I can take care of my guests."

 

The next guest that came over dressed up as a UPS carrier. There was even a UPS truck at her house. The carrier was polite enough to ring the bell (and be dressed for the neighborhood).

Demeter opened the door. "Hermes."

"At your service, Great Goddess. I need you to sign for this."

"Do I have to? Oh, the neighbors. Yeah."

Demeter signed a piece of paper on Hermes' tablet.

"The Dark Lord heard about your sudden appearance after you had disappeared. Lord Zeus doesn't know how you escaped him for centuries."

"It's the people, isn't it? I've always been close to them. I know how to hide from people using them as cover, even if I keep my distance away from them. Someone like Zeus could never do that. The people fear him."

"Very astute, indeed, Great Goddess. Pluto's not upset that Persephone is no longer his wife. He's very sorry for his actions, and he sides with you in your fight. He wants your family to have this. He believes you'll all know how to use it without training. After the fight, win or lose, he wants it back." He wrote a number on a piece of paper. "Start dialing this number. I'll be here to pick it up. And please leave it in the box."

"The neighbors."

"The neighbors."

Hermes handed Demeter the box. "I'm on your side, Great Goddess. I won't tell Zeus. Good luck."

Demeter took the box inside and opened it.

Once she saw what was inside, she laughed until she fell over to her side, crying.

Persephone ran down the house's stairs.

"Mama, are you alright?"

"Of course I'm all right." She was still laughing. "Look in the box."

Persephone looked in the box. She nodded.

"I'll get you some tissues, Mama."

 

The final guests were two middle-aged men. One of them had his hair slicked back, stubble on his face and was wearing a three piece Brooks Brothers suit. The other had shaggy hair cut to the nape of his neck, a full beard and was wearing a Hawaiian shirt, jeans and sandals.

They walked to the door of Cyanopeplus House together. The man in the suit rang the doorbell.

The door opened. There appeared to be no one behind it.

The two men walked in the house. There was no one in it.

The men walked into the house. The door shut behind them.

There was a "thump" behind the two men. They turned around.

A woman with snakes slivering all over exercise clothes and in her hair was behind them. She bore a golden sword. There were three others: a young man with a sword, another young man with a scythe, and a woman with sickles and shades swirling around her body.

"Demeter," the man in the business suit said. "And you've gotten aid from Hades. He gave you his invisible helmet."

Demeter laughed. "Apparently if I wear the helmet and my children can cling onto me, we can all be invisible."

"I thought Hades didn't care about these things."

"He still cares for Persephone, in a way. And I bet he feels remorse for what he did years ago, unlike you."

"Hey, can I get a word in edgewise?" Poseidon said.

"Not yet," Demeter said. "Did you really think I was going to another godly tour with my brother rapists in tow? Pretend to be happy when on the inside I was still bitter about my home being forced upon me and taken from me? You even took Persephone, Zeus, while I was in the area. Were my sons not handsome enough for rape? Huh?

"This is a new age, brothers. What you've done, it may be romanticized now, but if you were scumbags hanging out in the clubs of South Beach, you'd go to jail unless you gave the officers blow and they were moved by it."

"That was for me, right?"

"Shut up, Poseidon," Demeter said.

"You and your children left the family," Zeus continued. "You have responsibilities. And you should fulfill them with the rest of the Olympians, not in a prissy house in a prissy neighborhood with prissy mortals."

Demeter shook her head. "No. And I like my neighbors. I wish they didn't hate me. So go ahead and electrocute me. Have Poseidon drown me. I'm fighting back now. My children and I, we have the advantage. If you win, we sell the house and go back to wherever the Olympians are. If we win, fuck off."

"But you liked it!" Poseidon said.

"I see the spirit of the staircase's gotten you, but let me remind you of a few things. It's very hard to cry rape when you're a fucking horse, Poseidon. It's even harder with a horse dick up your cunt. Fuck you."

"That's enough." Poseidon headed to Demeter's kitchen to get to her backyard.

As soon as he attempted to get to the door, the windows had their draperies closed, letting in no light. The lights went out. The doors were locked.

"Did I not say the children and I had the advantage over you? You don't get the weather or the sea water to help you out. My rules."

Poseidon tried to run towards Zeus, but he felt a sword around his neck.

"Neigh, Papa," the voice said.

"Arion? How could you do this?"

"You never took care of me. Do you have to ask?"

Plutus tackled Poseidon's legs, and all three men fell to the ground. But Poseidon was tackled.

Meanwhile, Zeus attempted to tackle the Demeter Fury, but the Fury wrapped itself around Zeus' body, and the shades being generated by Persephone weren't helping him either. Especially since they were shades from Tartarus, and some of those people were pissed off about how the gods had treated them.

"I surrender!" Zeus said. "You win."

 

The men were buried in Demeter's yard. Her children waved their weapons in front of their heads.

"I should dangle you all from chains," the man said.

Demeter, still in Fury form, wagged her finger in front of Zeus. "You surrendered. You don't get to do that.

"My terms are simple: my boundaries are the city limits of Miami and Miami Beach. I catch either one of you on my turf without my permission, and I'll make ichor bleed."

"Agreed," Zeus said.

"Poseidon?"

"Aww, man, do I have to agree?"

"Of course you do, you horse rapist."

"Agreed."

Fury Demeter raised the men out of the ground.

"And don't you dare dissipate. Out the front door from whence you came, please. No tracking dirt inside the house."

 

"Mama, did you wash your pain away?"

Demeter was now in her black dress, but there weren't any snakes crawling in her hair and on her body; she had made them disappear.

"You've got to bathe away your pain now that everything's over. We did that in the Ladon, remember?"

"Yes, I did bathe away the pain. It's gone. I'm fine. Back to your room."

Persephone walked away from her mother.

"She's repressing it," she quietly said. "Someone help us all."

 

At first Demeter's fury felt great, like the first time she was truly furious at the loss of Kore. She told her neighbors off with it. She used it on mortals to scare them. Not in snakes form, no. That form was _too_ creepy for mortals. A simple yelling at the mortals would do.

Okay, maybe a touch of the golden sword here and there, but a yelling at the mortals should do.

But around 20 years later, the fury began to wear on Demeter. It wasn't fun tormenting the mortals for, well, fun.

Chloe and her family were involved in a tragic car crash around that time. They were in a van when their car crashed into the side of a bridge.

After Chloe's "death" a cousin of Chloe's, Demeter Demetriou of Eleusis, and _her_ family, playfully named after Persephone, Plutus and Arion, moved into the neighborhood. They were well off, like Chloe, but unlike Chloe, they had ambitions to get into the film industry. Their goal was to be another De Laurentiis family, but based in, of all places, Miami.

They moved into Cyanopeplus House. They left most of the design intact. They swapped out a few older pieces for more modern pieces, but the art remained in an Art Deco style. For odd reasons, geckos started hanging out in her yards and only in her yards. Because of this, Cyanopeplus House went through another informal name change—Askalabos House.

The family hustled. Demeter started a landscaping business and tried out for a HGTV show, one centered on gardening. It worked. Sure, _Green Gardens with Demeter Demetriou_ didn't allow Demeter the control she wanted over her show, but it worked. She taught people how to tend their gardens, and the show became a success.

Before he became "of age," Plutus worked in a few restaurants and some catering companies. (Plutus was supposed to be in a private school in the early 2000s, but fooling mortals to make a god stuck in his early 20s look like a tween in a private school is easy work. It's even easier when your mother can teach you shape shifting and the ability to falsify documents.) Being the god he was, he managed to sneak food and sometimes money to the city's poor, even though doing the former was against the rules of a lot of businesses. When he was "18," he started his own catering company, headquartered in Askalabos House. He was much happier cooking and serving others while bringing wealth to the Demetriou household. It was what he was born to do, after all.

Demeter started a production company, The Golden Blade, after the mysterious deaths of some of her _Green Gardens_ staff. To put on airs, Demeter hired mortals to help run the Golden Blade at first. Eventually, when Persephone and Arion were "of age," they joined Demeter in running the company. In the mid-aughties The Golden Blade made a pilot for the show _Goddess of the Yard. Goddess of the Yard,_ a show where Demeter went to yards and gardens to fix them, was picked up by and became a huge hit for HGTV.

The success of _Goddess of the Yard_ made the Demetrious a household name in home improvement and cooking shows. Demeter went to the occasional gardening convention out of state and often took the rest of her family with her. _Goddess of the Yard_ also allowed Demeter to get Plutus get a few cooking specials on the Cooking Channel as well as a booth for cooking samples for the Wine & Food Festival. (Demeter, Plutus and a few assistants would make the food, and somehow Persephone and Arion ended up drunk.)

People were, and are, still amazed Demeter can juggle a landscaping business, a production company, personal appearances and television shows for the family. You had to be near superhuman to do all of those things.

Demeter grinned whenever she heard those compliments. They'd always be close, but they'd never know she actually _was_ superhuman.

But she couldn't be happy about her fury. The fury was still there, and it made Demeter miserable every day it festered in her.


	2. Part II

> There's a bluebird in my heart that wants to get out  
>  but I'm too tough for him,  
>  I say, stay in there, I'm not going to let anybody see you.  
>  Charles Bukowski

 

If you have to crash into a car on South Beach, make sure it's not a yellow SRT Viper with racing stripes and black tire rims that look like flower petals. It might be more expensive than you think. And no, it's not the price of the Viper.

Brian found that out the hard way. It's not like anyone could've told him to be careful.

Brian was trying to get to work. He was already late, and the Miami traffic wasn't helping. Red lights weren't his friends at the moment, so he bypassed them whenever he could.

That was when he slammed into the Viper.

His car, a compact car from the 90s, ran into an electricity pole. The Viper was in the middle of Biscayne Boulevard (a portion of US Highway 1), which is the worst place for any non-moving car to be.

Brian was about to walk out his car. He started freaking out when the woman in the Viper wasn't moving.

 

A bystander watching the event from a restaurant booth by a window called 911. The woman in the accident was taken out of her car, put on a stiff stretcher and sent to Jackson Memorial Hospital. Gold stuff was on the driver's seat window and her nose. Police made sure to note the gold stuff in the car when the woman was conscious.

The police interviewed Brian. His story to the police started like anyone trying to get out of paying for medical and car bills with insurance: "She was in my way, man! I was trying to get to work. _She_ ran the red light. That's what happens when you let expensive and fast cars get into the hands of these so-called celebrities."

The police had no choice but to let Brian go home. They even escorted him in a police car.

 

Meanwhile, while the police was waiting for the female in the car to wake up, her daughter, who looked to be in her mid-20s, walked into her hospital room. Her hair was dyed with gold hair color. The police decided to interview her.

"Mama wasn't fond of me dying my hair blonde, and especially in this color," the woman's daughter told police. This stuff's very cheap. It doesn't dry fast enough, and when it does, it flakes all over the place. And then I decided to take a spin in Mama's car before she had to pick up a few things before our production company meeting. Silly me. I should've gotten Manic Panic. I think they make metallic gold. I could've gotten it from a novelty store somewhere on South Beach. "

Immediately after that interview, the police knew the woman in the hospital bed was not the type to huff gold spray paint.

 

"Mama," the daughter whispered in the woman's ear by her hospital bedside, "you have to stop being furious. You like it. It makes you feel good. I know. But it's your drug, like the mortals have…drugs and alcohol. You need to let it go. It's hurting you.

"I'll bathe in Biscayne Bay for you," the woman said, not sounding like she was any pain at all.

The daughter left. The woman smiled a wry smile.

 

Brian got in contact with his car insurance company. He was able to quickly obtain a car from a rental service so he could get to work the next day.

He was able to get to a day lot that connected to the Miami Metro system without any problem. And he had no problems buying a ticket to the Coral Gables station.

While waiting upstairs for the Metro, Brian met a woman with long, wavy black hair and green eyes. She sat beside him, a copy of the _Miami Herald_ in her hand.

"Wow, did you read this?" The woman pointed to an article in the A section of the paper. "Some guy ran into this HGTV host the other day. I'm happy she survived."

"She did? Fuck."

"Did you have something against her?"

"No, no. I don't know her. I was thinking of something else."

"Oh. Well, what if I told you this woman was a goddess?"

"Yeah, her show's called _Goddess of the_ something. I don't really care. HGTV's boring. I wish they'd take it off cable packages and replace it with the Military Network or something."

"No, I mean an actual goddess. I met her once. She's pretty awful, in that god-like way."

Brian laughed. "She has to be one of those bad-ass goddesses, right?"

 _This woman's batshit crazy,_ he thought. _But I'll play along, as long as it gets her to shut up._

"Like Artemis or Athena or something. Gotta be Greek. Those other gods are obscure. But why would they be tending peoples' yards?"

"All goddesses are pretty awful, even the ones that don't take up sword, spear or arrow." The woman turned her _Herald_ into a sword. "I hate when people gloss over my sword. But you're right, I'm Greek. I do know some Egyptians that can fuck you up, though. The Greeks weren't a slasher-type of people, but I've mastered some stuff from different cultures. I could cut you."

Brian stared at her. He froze. "Athena?"

Snakes started to appear on the woman's body, writhing all around her. "Close, but she had a snake-headed Gorgon on her chiton, not snakes. Big difference."

"Artemis?"

The woman laughed. "No."

"Hera?"

She laughed. "Hera would be the _last_ person to pick up a sword. And don't even say Aphrodite or Hestia, because, once again, no."

"Oh, God, you're—"

Brian jumped up, backing up towards the train track.

The woman stood up, pointing her sword at Brian, making sure not to harm passersby. Only Brian could see the woman with the sword.

"You're the HGTV host, and you're…you're Demeter, fuck—"

Demeter shrugged. "Demeter Demetriou. The goddess Demeter. One and the same. That car I was driving? Yeah, it's a Viper. And it's also one of my dragons. Really, they're _dracones,_ but no one understands that in English. So I call them dragons, but they don't breathe fire or hoard gold or anything."

Brian stopped. "You had dragons."

"How else was I supposed to go from place to place? Anyway, the dragons, they have a home inside the SRT Vipers. It's another dimension. It's really complicated, but there's a lot of magic involved." Demeter nodded. "But all anyone talks about is that one time I cried looking for my daughter. It's not like I caused a drought and a famine all over Greece or anything.

"When you wreck the Viper, you kill one of my dragons. And I don't like when people harm my dragons or trounce around my home touching the things that are sacred to me. I almost got rid of a few people who wanted to carve their initials in a tree that belongs to me in Coral Gables."

"You have trees?"

"A tree in every neighborhood in Miami. Overton to Miami Beach, if you harm it, you face me. But that's beside the point, because…" She made a stabbing motion towards Brian. "You aren't going to remember this at all."

"Why not?"

Demeter made a few more stabbing motions. Brian fell onto the Metro train tracks. He tried to climb off the tracks, but it was too late.

"You'll be dead," Demeter said, turning her sword back into the _Herald._

Demeter shrugged. She sighed and looked at the spot where Brian was killed. "Well, that idiot's going to make me spend about an hour on that Coconut Grove bus." She walked down the stairs of the Metro station.

 

Brian's insurance company paid for the damages done to Demeter's Viper. Brian couldn't contest anything, so the insurance company gave up and settled the case as fast as they could.

 

A week after Demeter was admitted to the hospital, she was released. Doctors were astounded she only came out with a small concussion from her crash.

Shortly thereafter, her children gave their mother a new Viper, a Viper that looked exactly like the one Brian ran into.

 

Kimberly Sutton was a lot of things: a Kimberly, never a Kim or Kimmy; biracial girl from Stone Mountain, Georgia, with a thick Southern accent and years of being tormented for it, an actress and producer on a project she and her husband, David (to his annoyance and the annoyance of those that didn't speak Spanish or Spanish well, he had to remind them it was pronounced Dahvid) Bettencourt, crafted so they could spend quality time together in their home in Miami, _Angel and Saint,_ and a huge fan of the Demetriou Family's shows.

It was a chance encounter with one of Demeter's associates that would give Kimberly the access she needed to get to Demeter.

Kimberly and David lived in a penthouse suite in Brickell, under the radar of the other celebrities that owned penthouses in the area. The penthouse was close to a gym in Brickell, a gym the two frequented when they weren't needed on affairs pertaining to their show. They would get stares from passersby not because they were moderately famous, but because they didn't drive (or use bus passes, but how dare they use bus passes, they're somewhat famous) to the gym. It's thought that everyone knew the first rule of the roads in Miami—never walk long distances; always take a vehicle. But Kimberly and David were rebels. They didn't care that they were wearing tank tops, shorts and towels in public. And besides, Kimberly looked cute with a white sweatband and her black hair tied back into a ponytail, anyway.

One Saturday, they encountered a woman with a messy bob haircut, a black motorcycle jacket (although it was way too hot for a black motorcycle jacket), a light blue tank top, and jeans standing outside their usual gym.

When Kimberly saw the woman, she had to cover her mouth to not emit a scream.

"Babe, look!" she whispered in David's ear.

David shrugged. " _Cariño_ , it's a woman with a jacket and poofy hair."

"It's Persephone Demetriou!"

David stroked his mustache and goatee. They were connected; it looked like a padlock made of bushy hair. "Am I supposed to get to know her…"

"It's stuff like you not wanting to know who the Demetrious are that's keeping us away from them."

He ran his fingers through his wavy hair, which stopped short of his eyebrows. Without any product in it, it flopped around whenever he walked. "They're a family with lifetime shows. They're cute. But that's it. Why don't you aim for JLo or the Kardashians or something if you want famous friends?"

"I don't want them as friends. I don't care about reality shows or musicians I don't listen to. I want to be friends with the Demetrious."

"Don't you think this is a bit invasive? Maybe she's meeting someone."

"If she is, we'll back off. This may be our only chance to meet the Demetrious ever. Let's go, David."

David sighed, but followed her, trying to contain a smile on his face.

"Persephone Demetriou?" Kimberly said.

Persephone looked up in shock, then smiled. "Hello. You're Alice Saint, right?"

Kimberly nodded. "Kimberly Sutton."

"That's your husband?"

_"Si."_

"I was hanging out here. I needed some fresh air. When my mother and I fight—it doesn't seem like we fight but we do—it can get awful, and I need to get away. My brothers are brave; they stay if we're all together in Askalabos. Do you live in Brickell? I never knew because I could've tried to stalk you."

"We do."

Persephone let out a little scream. Kimberly's eyes grew bigger. She grinned.

"I love your show. There's something about it that resonates with me. Private detectives fighting outlandish villains…yeah, I love villains that aren't down to earth. They're more interesting than normal villains for me. I tried getting Mama to watch it, but she doesn’t want to. I can't even get her to watch _Burn Notice_ with the rest of the family in the summer. She'd rather watch the news when we're not filming. It makes her feel better, or so she says."

"Is there any way you can get Plutus to cater to the show?"

"Wait, wait, wait. You didn't say you wanted the Demetrious to cater."

"Shh, David. I want to meet her."

"Oh, of course! He's not booked for some super-important gig. I'll give you his number. You don't mind me putting his number in your phone?"

"Oh, thank you so much!"

Kimberly handed Persephone her phone. Persephone did put in a phone number. But it wasn't Plutus' number or the number of his business. It was Demeter's number.

"He takes calls until…10 PM, I think? But he's a nice guy. He won't bite your head off or anything."

"Thanks again!" Kimberly said, before the two went into their gym.

Persephone walked away from the gym, opting to wander the streets of Brickell by herself. She looked down at the cement.

"I'd do anything for my mother, even if she didn't want me to do it for her."

 

Demeter was juggling a laptop on a small laptop desk in bed. She didn't need the bed. She didn't need the sleep, and to view the city as it seems to shut down at five in the morning was a spectacle to see from Hibiscus Island. But it was comfortable, and she wanted to do things with her hands.

Demeter's cell phone rang. Although she knew it was a number she didn't recognize, she picked up the phone anyway. The Fury didn't approve.

_"Hello? Is this Great House Catering?"_

"No, this is Demeter Demetriou. How'd you get my number…"

The voice on the other end was more excited. _"Hello? Miss Demetriou?"_

"This is she. Who is this?"

_"Kimberly Sutton."_

"Are you a stalker or a stranger or…"

 _"No. I'm the star of_ Angel and Saint. _It's a show on TNT. You're heard of_ The Avengers, _right?"_

"The superhero movie."

_"No, the British TV show."_

"Not really. I'm not one for scripted TV, unless it's looking at my shows and seeing what I've done wrong."

 _"We're that other other other show that shoots in Miami. We're not_ Burn Notice _or_ Graceland _or_ Magic City. _Or anything that shoots in LA, for that matter. It's our third season here. I think both seasons of our show are on Netflix. And both seasons are also on DVD, iTunes, Amazon, the usual suspects. Listen, we're in need of a food truck for our next outdoor shoot in Coconut Grove. We've called every food truck we could call, and they're all busy. We'd like your son to cook for us, and maybe you could come over as well, if you're busy?"_

Which reminded Demeter, _Burn Notice_ was somewhere on her list of targets.

"Who gave you my number?"

_"Your daughter. She said it was your son's catering business."_

Demeter stammered. "Oh. I'll go and talk to her later."

_"Please? I'm a huge fan of yours. Hugehugehuge. I've seen all of your shows. I DVR them and watch them when I'm not working. It's pretty much some of the only free time I get while we're filming or we're not haggling with TNT in Atlanta."_

"We've never met, and I've been down here for about ten or so years."

_"Yes."_

"I get haggling with the network sometimes—I do it with HGTV, and sometimes they listen to me. Exhausting." She took in a deep breath. "Oh, all right, I'll do it. But when do you need my son?"

_"Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday of next week. I'll tell you when and where you need to be there once I consult the production schedule again."_

"That works for me. My son and I await your second call, and I can't wait to meet you, Kimberly. It's just Kimberly, right? Not Kim or Kimmy or anything?"

_"Yes, it's just Kimberly."_

"Kimberly. Good night, Kimberly."

_"Bye."_

After Kimberly hung up, Demeter went to Netflix on her television and pulled up the page for _Angel and Saint._ The show's blurb read:

Victor Angel (David Bettencourt) and Alice Saint (Kimberly Sutton): their relationship is doomed to be complicated, and no amount of sensible discussion between them will fix that. But outside their personal lives, these detectives fight the most outlandish, strangest and craziest villains Miami's (n)ever seen.

The summary didn't seem offensive to Demeter. She shrugged and played the pilot episode.

Within five minutes, a car was blown up over grass in a field somewhere outside of Miami.

Demeter stopped the pilot episode. "This is why I can't even watch _Burn Notice,_ damn it."

She started the next episode, "Little Did We Know."

Midway through that episode, Alice, in her Mercedes-Benz, drove into shrubs separating a parking lot from a road.

Demeter skipped a few episodes to get to episode eight, "Search for a Car."

About a third of the way into "Search for a Car," the villain was shooting blanks near a hammock in Coconut Grove. To make matters worse, as soon as the hammock was being shot at, an explosion was set off near the hammock. It singed part of the tree.

Thing was, that tree was _the_ sacred tree of Demeter in Coconut Grove. It wasn't officially noted as _her_ tree. It was an excuse for Demeter to kill off people. _Angel and Saint_ was now Demeter's number one target on a quiet killing spree that has lasted for decades.

Then again, when you're a god, it's not really a _killing_ spree, is it? It's disobeying the wrath of a god, that's all.

 

An agreement was an agreement, however, and Plutus decided to honor his agreement to cater in Coconut Grove. Demeter joined him.

What she _wasn't_ expecting was a woman, a couple of inches taller than her (adopted) petite size, running up to her in a white shirt and jean shorts, hugging her as she was opening up Plutus' catering truck.

"I love everything you do," the woman said.

Demeter looked at the woman, a bemused look on her face. There was something stirring in her heart, but it had to be ignored. Demeter had given up on acceptance and admiration years ago. "This is why I don't travel with bodyguards. A woman of the people loves surprises."

The woman stopped hugging Demeter. "I don't travel with bodyguards, either. I'm not famous enough for them." She shook her straight black hair and offered Demeter a hand. "I'm Kimberly Sutton."

"Oh, so _you're_ the woman who called me last night."

"I am."

A man cursing in Spanish followed Kimberly to the site where the food was being prepared. He was wearing white shorts, an orange tuxedo jacket with a blue and white striped shirt under it and holding on to a straw Panama hat. His hair was slicked and combed back. He held his knees and took a breath.

Kimberly faced the man. "Aww, David, I'm sorry." Kimberly and the man hugged and exchanged kisses on the cheek.

 _"Está bien, cariño."_ His Spanish sounded as if he was dropping the s in _está._

David stood up and took off his hat, exposing his wavy black hair. It was combed back and held in place with hair gel.

"You're David Bettencourt. Kimberly's husband." Demeter offered him a hand and he shook it.

"I am. My wife's seen every episode of _Goddess of the Yard_ you've done. And she watches all your specials. She's obsessed. Sometimes I watch with her, but I'm not crazy about gardening shows. No offense."

Kimberly nodded. "Can you stop setting up for a bit? I want to show you the set. Or at least our outdoor setup, anyway. I'd love for you to see our sets in Hollywood."

"Hollywood? Hollywood, Florida?"

"Yeah. It's hard to find an industry quality soundstage in Miami. We hightail it to Hollywood for a few days for interiors. And Hollywood _loves_ us."

Demeter shrugged. "If you ever need Plutus to cater up there for you, I'll let him know. He should be able to do it. His business is big enough."

"Great!"

"You can go ahead and show me the set."

Kimberly grabbed Demeter's hand, and the two walked back to the outdoor setup. David followed them.

The outdoor shoot was on a residential street. A man with grey hair was putting a small box in the back seat of a Mercedes-Benz.

The demolition car, Alice's personal car, was a Mercedes-Benz R107 from 1971. The car had to be white because the heroes were known as Angel and Saint, after all. The unwritten rule of _Angel and Saint_ was that they were only to wear white (and black, for contrast) things and drive white things. Victor owned a first generation SLK roadster, but it wasn't needed for the day's shoot.

Because it was an older model car meant for demolition, the car could be blown up and smashed around as much as possible and repaired for cheap. The day's objective was to blow up the Roadster. After the car exploded, Victor would see Alice on a sidewalk, crawling on the ground in a haze of smoke (some of it to be added in post-production later). Before Victor would get to Alice, three masked men would kidnap her, and the Villain of the Week, Mr. Jones, would stun Victor before Victor could save Alice.

The R107 had its battery, fuel tank and oil tank removed. The tires had been slightly deflated. There was an electrical charge in the car, made by Joe days in advance.

"That's Joe Saladin." Kimberly wasn't aware she was pulling Demeter to the filming site as if she was a little child. "He's in charge of the explosions on the show. He's doing a final check before we blow up this car."

"In the street."

"Yes."

"Around these plants."

"You have to forgive _mi cariño._ She's always like this around people she admires. I have to calm her down or she'll try to take her favorite people home."

Demeter nodded. "Oh, I see."

"Oh, I need to stop pulling you or you might get in the explosion."

"Yes, I think you should."

"We're about to set up this shot where my car explodes. You can hang out and watch with everyone else."

"Sounds great with me."

 

Kimberly and David had gotten into their positions, a safe distance from where the car would be blown up. Everyone was read for the stunt to be performed: the crew, the rest of the cast, a small group of Coconut Grove residents and Demeter, the director, Francis Bellamy.

Francis yelled for action.

Demeter focused on the car with her green eyes. A smirk appeared on her face.

As scripted, David grabbed Kimberly's hand. With his other hand on his hat, David led Kimberly away from the car. But the car didn't explode.

 _"¿Que cono?"_ David said, turning around at the car.

"And cut!" the director, Francis, yelled. "What the fuck was that?"

"I don't know," David said. "That's never happened to us before."

"I know. I was here shooting in the Grove last year, remember?"

"I don't know what happened either, Frank," Kimberly said.

David nodded. "Yeah, we…don't know."

"Let's take five and let Joe look at the explosive charge again."

Joe went back to the charge and inspected it.

"Francis," Joe said, "there doesn't seem to be anything wrong with—"

Demeter narrowed her eyes.

The charge went off. Demeter, being the jokester she was, made sure Joe's head was cleanly blown off.

Demeter cleared her throat. "Call 911! Someone call 911!"

 

Demeter made her son's luncheon a somber affair.

The cast and crew on set for _Angel and Saint_ ate lunch near the truck. Francis stood in front of the production while everyone was either eating slowly or not eating at all.

"Out of respect for Joe, we're wrapping production for _Angel and Saint_ early today. We'll be in-studio for the rest of the week. I don't think we'll get a lot of breaks from TNT over a crew member death. Anyone not needed to clean up or break down can leave after lunch. Thanks, guys."

Behind Francis was the truck, but he wasn't within earshot of Plutus and Demeter. Both were at the truck. Plutus handed his mother a plate of lemon chicken.

"Really, Mother?" He was whispering in Modern Greek. "I know Kimberly invited you here. I wish she didn't, but she doesn't know about your fury. I don't care what kind of stupid grudge you have against them, if this interferes with my business again…"

"What are you going to do, son?" she whispered back, in Greek. "You're the god of fortune. I've always been a warrior. Who do you think's going to win?"

Plutus sighed and checked on one of his employees in the truck. (The employee didn't speak Greek at all.)

While Francis sat down with a plate of pork souvlaki, Demeter sat with Kimberly and David.

Kimberly sighed. "Of all the days I get my idol to come to my show, tragedy happens."

Demeter shrugged. "Well, shit happens."

"I'd like to make it up to you. Any time you can head up to Hollywood, I'll give you clearance to see us film the interiors. It's not a lot of green screen. Victor and Alice don't drive around Miami a lot. I think what we have built at the moment is the Angel and Saint headquarters, some upcoming villain headquarters and a club interior."

"And I can be there while you're filming."

Kimberly nodded.

"I'd be honored to come tomorrow. I can be up there by 11. I think."

"Great!"

"You think I can talk to Francis?"

"I don't see why not," David said. "He's always talking about his divorce."

"I'm not interested in him that way, David."

"No. I was about to say if I can't cheer him up, maybe you have a shot. All he ever talks about is his wife, his divorce, how much he hates his kids and what he's going to do to his Malibu mansion once it's finally his. It's insufferable. If I could, I'd take over his reigns, at least to spare the crew listening to this idiot talk about his family. But that's petty."

Demeter's eyebrows rose when David said 'hates my kids.' She was going to go after Francis for encouraging some of the explosions that destroyed the plants of Coconut Grove, but 'hates my kids?' Her wrath against Francis was even more justified.

"I'll try my best. It's worth a shot. If I fail, well, I haven't lost anything." She grinned.

Demeter walked over to Francis as Kimberly laid her head on David's shoulder. He ruffled her hair. _"Está bien, cariño."_

Demeter sat beside Francis.

"The divorce is going smoothly," he was yelling to a Blackberry. "A few more days, and my house will be free of nagging and children screaming and throwing shit around the house. I can experience Malibu the way it's supposed to be, waves crashing on the beach. Okay, whenever they film a cooking show over there, it's kinda annoying, but that woman's kids don't live with me." He cleared his throat. "Tomorrow we're taping interiors. I'll make sure the studio's 50 degrees. It's so fucking hot out here. Worse than Malibu, even."

"Oh, I'm sorry."

"I didn't see you, miss. _I'm_ sorry."

The woman outstretched her hand. "Demeter Demetriou."

"Oh, the Greek gardening expert person on HGTV."

Demeter nodded. "We're Greek American. My whole family and I, we've lived here for years. Most of the family lived in New York, but it wasn't until my cousin Chloe died that we came down here. We were going to sell her mansion, but we liked it enough to stay." She took a breath. "You know, Coconut Grove, it screams Miami, don't you think? People like to come here and take pictures of the Art Deco hotels or the lifeguard huts on Lummus, but this is more Miami to me. Where the people work, not where the outsiders play and are outnumbered by the locals."

Francis nodded. "It is."

"I'm amazed the people in Coconut Grove aren't bothered by the presence of _Angel and Saint._ "

"You mean the show, right, not Kim and David?"

"Yes. The show. I've got nothing against Kim and David—wait, I thought she got upset if you didn't call her Kimberly."

"How did you know that?"

"Lucky guess."

"She does. I call her Kim when she's not near me. She has a tendency to chastise very loudly. I mean, not bitchy or mean, just enough to embarrass you for a few minutes."

"Great show, by the way. I didn't think it would connect with audiences, you know, with Victor telling the audience 'well, I know how this is going to go, but this is my _faaaaaaaate._ ' But they love it. The Batman-like villains, the gunfights, the secret lair under a hammock. It seems like a show that wouldn't connect to an audience, and yet it does."

"It's amazing, isn't it?"

"It is. But I have another question. The residents don't have problems with the noise and the smoke from the blanks and the explosions?"

"No. The residents love our show. They ask to be extras in it, and sometimes we include them. We haven't gotten any complaints. But really, if you have any problems, you should see Kim and David. They produce the show, along with about, oh, five or six other people between here, LA and Atlanta. It's their baby, in a way."

"Sometimes those blanks and explosions, they harm the trees in the area. And the smoke lingers in the air for hours."

"We know that, but the community knows we mean no harm. It's all entertainment, like those reality shows that follow around socialites or housewives. Except they film in rich areas. North Miami Beach, South Beach…rich areas."

Demeter bit a piece of her lemon chicken. "Mmm. I love my lemon chicken, but the souvlaki is good. I should know. I made it. Wouldn't you agree?"

Francis nodded.

"Filling, I'd say. It's a good thing. I'd hate to eat my chicken and not feel full. You think?

"Yeah, it's filling."

"To eat this and then want more. The souvlaki's not enough, so you want to eat everything left over in the tent until we're required to junk anything that can be a health hazard. And then you'd want to eat the tent, but you can't. So you find other things to eat until you find a way to satiate your hunger. And then you die."

"Yeah."

"I'd hate to see that happen to someone."

"Yeah."

"Now you're a man of no words."

"I don't know why."

"Are you going to finish that souvlaki? Because I can take it off your hands."

"I've been talking to you. How can I finish this souvlaki?"

Joe quickly finished his souvlaki.

"I'm going back to the truck before lunch is over. Can you leave out a few things?"

"Sure."

Demeter finished her lemon chicken and disposed of the plate at Plutus' truck.

"I'm sending you back a customer, Plutus," she said, this time in English. "Be ready, son."

"I know what you're trying to do. Fuck off, mother," he whispered in English.

Demeter smiled and walked away.

 

"I'm concerned about Francis, David," Kimberly said to him in their bed. Kimberly had _Goddess of the Yard_ in the background. In this episode, Demeter was walking around the home of a middle-aged man who lived in Aventura in a purple summer dress. The man's grass was brown and his yard was covered in beach chairs. Even though her Wikipedia and IMDB entry had her age listed as "42" (born October 23, 1971), Demeter somehow looked younger than the man she was walking around with. The man, on the other hand, looked miserable.

David threw a towel in a linen basket and climbed into bed, naked.

"I'm not too concerned about Francis. He's a _culo_ anyway. I'm more concerned about this woman. There's something disarming about her."

"Like what?"

"She's always smiling and laughing."

"But that's not a bad thing."

"I'm always wondering when she's going to snap, how she's going to snap, who she's going to snap at. She can't be happy all the time. She must be a pain in the ass to work with."

"We don't know her well, David. If we can hang out with her and her family, then we'll really get to know her. I mean, Persephone's not bad. How bad can Demeter be?"

 _"I've never seen such a disastrous backyard, Leonard. But I can make this yard stunning,"_ Demeter said on the show. _"They don't call me the Goddess of the Yard for nothing."_

_"Thank you, Demeter."_

_"Oh, you're welcome!"_

David shuttered.

"David, let's get back to Francis. It feels like he's not himself, you know? He doesn't eat a lot, yes? He even skipped a few lunch breaks to work. But yesterday he kept going back to Demeter's truck until she had to break it down."

"That _is_ a bit troubling. You think we should talk to him tomorrow morning?"

"Yeah. Let him have his night, like I'm having mine."

"Can we watch something else? If I have to see this woman pretend like she actually likes this guy, I'm going to rip my hair out. You know how much you like to go through my hair."

"No. Just 15 more minutes, okay? If I don't watch this episode, our DVR will delete it."

David kissed Kimberly on her forehead. "All right, _cariño_. For you. You'd do the same if _Independence Day_ was on television."

Kimberly nodded. "I would."

There was a silence between the two as the TV's audio played by itself for a minute.

"That explosion was supposed to not be defective," Kimberly said. "What happened?"

David put her arm around Kimberly. "I don't know, _cariño_. We'll start figuring it out tomorrow."

David slid his hand down Kimberly's back. Kimberly let out a sigh. David chuckled and stroked her back.

"Demeter scares me, but she's hot. Even if she is…she's 42, right?"

"She is."

"If she was here right now, would you fuck her? Be honest."

Kimberly paused, then nodded. "But I bet she has someone. Or she prefers living with her kids than dating."

David shrugged. "You never know. She may be waiting for the right people. But unless that woman can tone it down a bit, forget it."

Outside, a turtle dove was perched on the railing of Kimberly and David's balcony. Unbeknownst to their knowledge, it had followed them home after work. After Kimberly and David's bedroom talk, the turtle dove flew away, heading toward Hibiscus Island.

 _"Coming up on_ Goddess of the Yard: _help is on the way for Gary's backyard,"_ Demeter's voiceover said over the television. _"It's been crying out to save it from the poisons of the dead leaves and grass. Can I help heal the earth once again, even if it is for a few days?"_

Directors don't have large coolers filled with yogurt beside their directing chairs. Francis was that rare exception, at least for this day. After the aborted outdoor shoot, Francis bought lots of yogurt, without bypassing the grocery store's limit on each brand and style. He had all types of yogurt, from Yoplait cups to tubs of The Greek Gods, plain yogurt to yogurt with Oreo add-ins, original to Greek style. And the yogurt horde wasn't complete without a large box of disposable spoons, of course.

The next day, at the _Angel and Saint_ soundstage in Hollywood, Francis put a mid-sized trash can and the cooler full of yogurt, spoons and trash bags beside his chair. The crew and cast were puzzled by his yogurt horde, but they let it go.

Incidentally, Demeter arrived at the indoor set, looked at the cups of The Greek Gods while Francis was away from his chair, and twirled the honey and pomegranate flavor in her hands. "A flavor dedicated to Hera," she whispered to herself. "Even my rapist brother gets a flavor. And I don't get one. Typical."

"Demeter!"

Kimberly, in the same costume she wore the other day, ran to Demeter and hugged her again. David followed her.

"I get the sense I'm becoming like a long lost relative to you. Or a lover."

"Kimberly, don't hug her too tight. She looks like she'll snap like a twig."

Demeter laughed. "What can I say? I have the best genes in the world."

"David, she smells so good! Like honey."

"Yeah. I make sure I seek out fragrances with a note of honey in them."

Kimberly looked at the yogurt Demeter was holding.

"You know about Francis' sudden yogurt thing."

"Yeah. Is he okay?"

"We think he is," Kimberly said.

"He hasn't turned into actual yogurt yet," David quipped.

"You know, this reminds me of a man. Erysikhthon. You probably know of him, Kimberly."

"I do!"

"I'm confused."

"She tells myths on her shows, especially myths about Demeter, to pass the time while she's doing yard work tasks. I mean, her name is Demeter. Makes perfect sense to me."

"He tried to hack down a sacred tree of Demeter's. The goddess turned into her priestess and asked him to stop, but he refused. So the goddess cursed him with a never-ending hunger."

"A hunger that led the man to eat everything he could, until he gave up and ate himself. It's gruesome, isn't it?"

Kimberly and David nodded.

"We're about to film a scene in Angel and Saint headquarters," Kimberly said. "So just hang out here and ignore Francis."

"Sounds lovely."

 

Francis would eat the yogurt before scenes, between scenes and after he was done directing scenes. It was the only thing he could eat that wouldn't pick up sound from the microphones during takes.

During lunch he ordered a large party-sized Roman-style pizza from a local pizzeria. He ordered a meat-lover's pizza with ham, sausage and steak and ended up eating the whole thing, fat, calorie and cholesterol levels be damned. His response to anyone who asked was "Well, Burger King sells burgers that have 100 grams of fat in them. What the fuck's wrong with this pizza?"

Pizza gave way to yogurt by the time filming began again. Francis was able to go through his entire yogurt in his cooler. (And the yogurt stayed cool.)

Then work ended.

Francis didn't realize it would be the last time he'd part ways with the cast and crew of _Angel and Saint._

 

It's not often that you'll find a director under a causeway in Miami dead from eating his foot. Well, the death was from excessive blood loss caused by the director sawing part of his leg off with a piece of glass from a car window.

But then again, this is a city that saw a homeless man eat another homeless man's face off. Strange things happen in Miami, and an out of town director dead from eating his own foot is one of them.

Francis was on his way to the nearest grocery store near his home, having eaten all of the pizza, all of his yogurt and everything in his refrigerator. Yes, even the ice that lined the freezer.

He was so hungry he couldn't make the Publix. He couldn't even make it to a fast food restaurant.

Francis found a way to drive under the Julia Tuttle Causeway. There, he opened his car trunk and pulled out a crowbar. With the crowbar, he smashed one of the back windows.

He didn't care whether the glass was sanitary or whether his foot was cooked or raw. He was going to eat his own foot, tie the wound up, get one of those motorized carts and buy a whole Publix. Except for the inedible things, like tampons and Windex.

He hit veins in his leg while cutting through his foot, ignoring the pain and lack of sanitation involved in making an instant meal of said foot.

His death was slow and painful. That wasn't a surprise.

 

The cast found out about Francis in the _Herald_ the next day, since his death was reported well after the local press had called it quits for the day. It was also the lede to a lot of local morning news programs.

" _Cariño_ , look." David handed Kimberly their copy of _The Miami Herald_.

"Francis was found under the Julia Tuttle Causeway. _Puto_ was trying to saw off his foot. Coroners found bits of his flesh in his teeth. The police is ruling it the most bizarre suicide in Miami in years.'"

"Are you sure that's Francis?"

"Sorry, _cariño_ , it's him."

"First Joe, now Francis. All while Demeter's been on set. My _idol,_ of all people. And as much as I don't usually care about Francis, well, fuck." She took another exhale, then took a beat.

"David, do you think there's some strange coincidence between Joe getting blown up and Francis eating his foot?"

"It doesn't sound like a connection."

"No, I think there's a connection. There's an explosive malfunction yesterday that kills Joe, right before lunch. Francis starts eating people out of house and home around this lunch. The next day, Francis loses it and saws off his foot under the Tuttle causeway."

"Do humans really taste like chicken? I mean, past licking your skin…"

Kimberly lightly punched David in his arm. "I heard they taste like veal. The chicken flavor is a lie." She giggled. "But seriously, David, I love when you try to lighten my mood, but now is not the time. Strange…there's got to be something strange about all this. Wait. David, remember that story Demeter was telling us?"

"The one where the guy ate himself. Ear sick dude or whatever his name was."

"Erysikhthon!"

Kimberly and David looked at each other.

"Wait. David, do you think—"

"I don't know what to think except I kept telling you _chica es loca._ "

Kimberly sighed. "Well, until we figure out this directing situation, we've got to shut down production on _Angel and Saint._ Start a calling chain and tell them they've got an early break. But we've got to make it up next Saturday, so no going out to a Marlins game."

"Who goes to Marlins games in this city? Nobody I know, that's for sure."

Kimberly and David didn't notice the turtle dove perched outside their balcony, listening to their conversation.

 

Boxing was a common hobby Kimberly and David shared, and both would throw punches at various immobile targets at their gym. On their unexpected day off, Kimberly was punching a speed bag as David was watching her. A patron with long black hair and green eyes was working on the circuit machines, intently watching the two.

"You remember Erysikhthon?"

"Yeah, Kimberly."

"We could go back to the penthouse and Google him up."

"Uh-huh."

"But if Joe and Francis' deaths are connected, and Erysikhthon was a hint, we should go to a library. Joe didn't eat himself to death, and I don't think he would've if he had the chance."

"Which one, _cariño_? I'll even warm the car up for you."

 

Kimberly and David found themselves at the Richter Library at their alma mater, the University of Miami.

"They charge _five dollars_ for a visitor pass? We're alums," Kimberly whispered as they walk through the library, searching for an empty study table, far away from other students.

"Hey, look, it's your stubbornness that leads us home. We didn't have to come here. We could've gone to a public library or FIU where it's actually _free._ And we don't have to access the internet here without relying on our phones."

"But it's _FIU_. I would rather jump in Biscayne Bay than to go there. Ooh, take that table. And I'm so glad we're not famous enough to come here and have paparazzi all over the place. That's great."

A librarian with her black hair in a bun and green eyes appeared in front of them.

"Do you need any help? Not with the Subway or Wendy's, of course, but books? Greek mythology books, specifically? I can take you to the BLs myself and pick out some of my favorites. And not Hamilton or Bulfinch—they're a bit dated, don't you think? Stuff like _The Routledge Handbook of Greek Mythology_ for starters, Timothy Gantz' _Early Greek Myth, Douglas' Guide to Greek Mythology._ Comprehensive, more recent books on Greek mythology."

"That would be great."

"Follow me."

"David, get us a table. Don't make the library laugh. Remember, we're visitors."

David winked at Kimberly and nodded.

 

Kimberly and the librarian returned to David's table with several Greek mythology books.

David's eyes widened as the books were put on the table. "We're going through _all_ of those books."

Kimberly nodded. "This librarian…what's your name?"

"Chloe."

"Chloe's very helpful. She knows her library codes."

Chloe nodded. "And my Greek mythology."

"See?" Let's get to work, babe."

Chloe walked away from the table.

" _Cariño,_ that was Demeter, wasn't it?"

Kimberly nodded. "I think we're on to something and she knows it. Also, she's doing a shitty job of disguising herself these days. I mean, if I have my skimming down, the woman used to pretend to be old women and her own priestesses."

"She killed Joe and made that look like an accident. She killed Francis and made that look like a bizarre suicide. _Chica es loca. Seriouso._ "

"And she wants us to verify how awesome she is."

"Is she asking us out? Not the murders, but everything else? Because this is the most bizarre flirting I've ever been involved in."

"The woman has a grudge against us. We've got to placate it. You know, like when Odysseus pissed off Poseidon."

"And then we'll discover whether she's flirting with us or not."

"David, why do you always have sex on the brain?"

"Because _you_ always have sex on the brain."

Kimberly laughed. "Ah, fair enough. We haven't discussed where we're getting lunch, since _someone_ ruined our filming day. And I'm betting she's listening, wherever the hell she is. Subway's on me. Or do you want Wendys?"

David shook his head. "Does this body look like it wants Wendys?"

 

"David, babe, we're not going to get anywhere if you take every opportunity to read full pages of _Metamorphoses,"_ Kimberly whispered at their table.

"This play's very engrossing, Kimberly."

"You're reading _the play._ You're not reading the Ovid text."

"No."

"David?"

"Sorry." David grinned.

"Stop goofing…whoa, babe, I found something. _Douglas' Guide to Greek Mythology,_ page 396."

"What will I be looking at?"

"Erysichthon."

"But I thought we already talked about Erysichthon."

"It's nice to actually look at it in print. Analyze Demeter's actions with some text instead of going by she says."

Kimberly passed David the book.

"That's the myth Demeter was talking about earlier. He was a king that cut down one of Demeter's trees in a grove." Kimberly scribbled notes in a notepad as she was talking. "Demeter got pissed and made him hungry for everything."

"Until he ended up gnawing at himself. Like Francis."

"But we don't have an explanation for Joe."

"No. We do."

David stared at Kimberly. "We do?"

"The hammock we film at in the grove. We shoot at it, we blow things up at it, and now it's protected by someone claiming to be the goddess Demeter. Hold on. Page…page 227. I put a Post-It bookmarklet thing there, shh. Colantas."

David flipped the page to Colantas.

"While Demeter was looking for Persephone, she asked a few people to let her stay in their homes. Colantas was the only man who refused. Demeter set his house on fire and rescued his daughter so she could be her priestess. Seems like the myth was told to encourage Greeks to be hospitable, since there were no motels or luxury hotels at the time, but if Demeter's killing off crew members because of her grudge, it's real to her."

"Wait, what? Joe wasn't inhospitable at all. What's going on with Francis and his life—that pissed off Demeter. She seems like she's protective of her kids. But Joe? He was a nice guy."

"But his explosions and whatnot did harm a few plants. That's probably what pissed Demeter off about him. He didn't think before making things explode."

"And why isn't she going after other shows that blow things up? Carino, we're here because I hate where they usually film these types of shows at. Vancouver's too cold for me, New York's too cold, LA's too LA…"

"With our luck, we'll piss other another god if we move. Isis, Freyr, Poseidon…there _has_ to be a reason why he hasn't shown up in our lives yet. If he knew we were in distress, he'd help us. Maybe she scared him off years ago." Kimberly took a breath. "She's got us whispering in a library, sounding like crazy people. We are the _only_ people in this city that have managed to piss off a god, and I'm not sure why she's pissed. And not only that, she's a god that no one expects to fuck up your shit. I'm really glad we don't have paparazzi to deal with this craziness."

David blinked his eyes. "Wait a minute. Demeter's crash. You showed me the crash in the _Herald_ a while ago."

"What about that crash?"

"She got in a crash six months ago. It was in the _Herald,_ all over the news…"

"Oh, that. Demeter drives a Viper. "

"She drives a Viper."

Kimberly nodded.

"She drives a Viper. I think that's over $120,000 dollars. And she's a host on HGTV."

"But she has other properties. And she's old money. But she's still an awesome woman, no matter how you put it."

"She sounds like Guy Fieri, but less of a _cojones_."

"Anyway, this dude crashed into the left side of her Viper and created a huge dent in it. People were amazed she was alive because her head hit the side of the car and the airbags deployed fast and hard enough to snap bones. They also found gold stuff in her car.

"Gold stuff."

"Yes, gold stuff. The police thought she was huffing gold paint at first, because there was gold stuff in the car, but they tested the stuff. They concluded it was temporary gold hair dye, especially after Persephone showed up to police wearing the stuff. And guess what, babe? Her name is Persephone Demetriou. But knowing who we're dealing with, it's probably _the_ Persephone."

"Stop making this the best day of my life."

"The case was settled in court, decided by the lawyers, because the guy fell over in the Metro. The dude that crashed into her Viper paid the money through his insurance. "

" _Cariño,_ that sounds like the myth of Carnabon. What page is that? Did you bookmark that?"

"Yeah. The pink bookmark, page 298."

David flipped to the page. "Yeesh. This guy, he killed one of Demeter's dragons that pulled her chariot. Demeter sent more of her dragons to kill him. And now the guy's a constellation. Told you, _carino, Demeter es una chica con problemas."_

Kimberly shook her head. "And I'm convinced the gold hair dye isn't hair dye. It was Demeter's own ichor. The blood of the gods, it doesn't dry red. It's gold going in and gold going out. And it's poison. Since you can't eat hair dye, that's why her blood read as 'gold hair dye.'"

David and Kimberly looked at each other.

"Babe, let's get out of here and get lunch. I'm pretty sure we're going to bump into her again. She's a god damned ghost. Except she's not a ghost. You know what I mean."

As David and Kimberly took the books to a pushcart, a woman with green eyes and long black hair had gotten a table near David and Kimberly. She was reading a paperback edition of _Gods Behaving Badly,_ rolling her eyes as she turned every page.

 

The sandwich artist at Subway had green eyes and long black hair, tied up in a bun. Unlike Demeter, she had fewer wrinkles on her face; she looked like a teenager, not a forty-something. But Kimberly and David knew the sandwich artist was Demeter.

"She's flirting with us," David said.

"She's not."

"She hasn't killed us yet. And she's grinning at us. And she's killed a couple of our co-workers. She's like a rich idiot with no day job. _Loca._ "

"Shh."

"The usual."

Kimberly and David walked to the order counter, where Demeter was waiting. She was wearing a name tag that read "MELANIE."

"Hello, welcome to Subway," 'Melanie' said. "One foot long Black Forest Ham sub with lettuce, tomato, red onions, jalapeños and mustard, no cheese?"

Kimberly sighed. "Yes."

'Melanie' made the sandwich. On the back of one of the Subway napkins she wrote a message before slipping the napkin with their sandwiches.

"Enjoy!" 'Melanie' said after David paid her.

Kimberly checked the sub at a table near the Subway counter. She looked at the napkin before showing David.

"You're right, David."

The note had Demeter's address on it and a message: "WEAR COMFORTABLE CLOTHES."

"She wants us. And she knows I just said that, too. Lunch in the Subway, babe?"

David nodded.

The two sat down at a booth near a window.

"Demeter has three children, right?" David asked.

"Yeah. Persephone, Arion and Plutus. Persephone was born a god. Plutus…he should've been born a demigod, but I guess he became mortal in some way. Arion was born a horse, but I'm guessing Hibiscus Island doesn't look kindly upon horses as pets in the city. She had eight kids at one time, but those six kids died or disappeared. She didn't say _how_ they died, they just are dead. Or missing. Or whatever gods do when they cease to exist. That was in her 60 minute HGTV biography, _Behind the Décor: Demeter Demetriou._ "

"Great, she has a small army. I'm amazed she hasn't tried to kill us yet."

"Persephone likes us, David! She's in our corner. Demeter…Demeter is either for or against us. It's hard to tell. It's like she has split personalities. We'll know about Arion and Plutus if we go to her house."

He cleared his throat. "Are you sure you want to do this? We might die or go to Tartarus or end up doing _fuki-fuki_ with a bull."

Kimberly laughed. "She never did those things, and those things sound a _bit_ too extreme for Miami. Except for dying. She could do that."

David exhaled and nodded. "Let's finish up. Tomorrow, we meet the Demetrious."

 

Kimberly and David's white C-Class Mercedes-Benz sedan was not as old or as flashy as the cars they drove from _Angel and Saint._ But it didn't look out of place when the car was parked at Askalabos House. It fit in with Demeter's yellow Viper…and a purple and grey Rolls-Royce Wraith, a costly black Nissan Armada and a yellow Porshe Boxster X. As the two passed Demeter's Viper, it sounded like the car was taking a long breath.

"Dragon," Kimberly whispered to herself. She grabbed David's hand. "Wild guess, David, but the Rolls belongs to Persephone, the SUV belongs to Arion and the Boxster belongs to Plutus."

" _Desgraciados ricos._ "

"Shh. You know Demeter. I bet her kids heard that."

"But they are _desgraciados ricos._ "

"Shh. Persephone's fighting for us. You want to piss her off too?"

"How does she explain away her kids to mortals? She popped out baby after baby in her 20s?"

"Pretty much."

"What happens when they're supposed to be in their 40s?"

"Shh."

David grabbed Kimberly's hand after they had stepped out of the car. They walked up the stairs together.

There was muffled arguing behind the front door:

 _"Mama, I have told you for years, decades even, to wash away your pain. It's not good for you, it's not good for us, it's not good for Miami. Miami didn't ask for scared trees in every damn neighborhood. People in Miami don't give a shit about sacred trees! They only care about getting caught if they're defacing the things. Miami didn't ask for you to off a guy on subway tracks._ You _did. If all of a sudden Miami becomes the new Atlantis, you're at fault. And trust me, Mama, it_ will _look suspicious if Miami becomes the new Atlantis."_

_"I can't find any sacred water in Miami."_

_"Mama, you could bathe in a lucky water fountain somewhere in the city. Nobody gives a shit. Just do it."_

_"It's not sacred water."_

_"You're going to attempt to kill two people you barely know, two people who don't know who you are, over a television show."_

_"They know who I am. I've been following them. I invited them here. They're coming for me. They're going to die like the other mortals."_

_"You're no better than Father these days. I'm amazed I haven't gone back to Hades. That would be the only time you'd take action over being an asshole."_

Kimberly and David looked at each other. "They're gods, all right," Kimberly mouthed.

"Fuck," David mouthed back.

Kimberly rang Demeter's doorbell. Persephone and Demeter showed up at the door.

Persephone wore her usual tank top, jacket and jeans. Demeter was wearing a purple vest on top of a white long-sleeved shirt, tan pants and brown boots up to the bottoms of her knees. Demeter smiled at the two. "We've been expecting you. Follow us to the backyard. And when you get out there, don't step on the geckos."

Kimberly's face froze in shock. "Geez."

David cringed. "I step on one, we're doomed," he whispered. Maybe you too, _cariño,_ but I know me. All for an accident. You know how Demeter works."

"But can I ask you a question?" Kimberly said to Persephone.

"Yes?"

"We read that people aren't supposed to call you…"

"Persephone? But you're brave humans. I was the first person you approached from Mama's house, wasn't I? If you were scared, you would've run away. I get that a lot." Persephone grabbed Kimberly's hand. "Come on."

The two quietly took in the house's updated Art Deco style. The house was still as dark and gloomy as it was back in the 80s, but it was still awe-inspiring.

Persephone went upstairs as Demeter, Kimberly and David stayed on the ground floor.

"Here’s the backyard," Demeter said as the four of them stood on her porch.

Save for a large pool, Demeter's yard was covered in Canadian grass. The yard was fenced in with trimmed shrubs and palm trees. There was a spot for a dock, since this was a private island where boats and the like could be docked, but there was no boat.

"You know my daughter, Persephone. My sons are at this table."

Arion had still maintained his full beard and long hair from centuries ago. Plutus, on the other hand, could only muster the long hair and a wispy mustache. Both sons looked excited to meet Kimberly and David, but they were frozen in place by something that was scaring them.

David looked at the table and waved.

" _Hola,_ " he said.

Demeter's sons said nothing to him.

"I'm David Bettencourt. I star in _Angel and Saint._ It's a huge show for TNT."

"We know," Plutus said. He had a boyish voice, and that voice was timid.

"Are you going to introduce yourselves or something?"

"I'm Plutus. That's my brother Arion. He used to be a horse."

"Neigh," Arion said. He frowned. "City living, blah."

Demeter walked Kimberly to the middle of the yard as David and Demeter's sons were talking.

"She told us not to do anything."

"She's in denial that she needs our help," Arion said. "I think you know she could kick both of our asses before we could even grab her. And I've been in _wars._ "

"So we're going to sit here and watch her fury consume her. We've made plans in case she's consumed."

"We're not doing anything for Scripps Network anymore. No HGTV, no Cooking Channel, no Food Network. Although I'll miss Chelsea Market."

"Persephone takes over the house. I’m guessing she'll want to stay in Miami a while, but if not, I don't know what she'll do. I'll disband Great House, but I'll let my employees find jobs elsewhere first. And then I'll travel the world."

"I'm thinking of becoming a Navy SEAL for a few years. Not sure if I'll get myself killed, I'll kill myself or I'll grow old and retire. Hmm. The former seems nice."

Plutus nodded. "We have plans."

David stared at Demeter's sons. "I'll continue to be an actor…wait, why is your mother taking my wife out into your yard?"

"For the glory of Miami, I guess." Plutus looked down.

"For the glory of Miami, or whatever Mother's doing."

"You're not going to stop her?"

"No," they both said at the same time.

"What about Persephone?"

"Like I said, David, she can take all of us out at once. I wish we could save your wife, but we can't. Your show's like _The Avengers,_ right?"

"Yeah. So?"

"I'm sure you can find someone to replace Alice," Arion continued. "But I'm sorry about your wife."

"I'll see how you feel when I straddle you to save my wife."

Arion growled.

Back in the middle of the yard, Kimberly waved her hands. "Look, we didn’t know that tree we were filming at in the Grove was yours, okay?"

"You, of all people, should know I hate fire around plants."

"You didn't say or indicate anything that said that tree belonged to you, damn it!"

"But I am a god."

"Shut up."

"You didn't let me finish. I'm going to teach you a lesson. Then I'll kill you."

"Stop being so damn cryptic."

"I'm not being cryptic. Persephone says you two like to box."

"We do."

Demeter put her fists up. "Let's do this."

"With bare fists? You and me? Are you crazy?"

"I'm Greek. We can box."

Demeter started punching at Kimberly. Kimberly took a defensive position and tried to duck or block Demeter's fists.

"I don't want to fight you. Can't we talk it out over some wine?"

"No."

Kimberly's blocking was good, but it wasn't enough. Demeter landed some blows on her chest and her face. She fell to the ground.

Demeter pulled out her golden-tinted sword. Her clothing was covered in snakes. Demeter put the sword on Kimberly's heart.

"This was what I used to battle Gaia's Giants with." The point of the sword grazed Kimberly's heart back and forth. Demeter grinned. "I must admit, I felt betrayed by my grandmother betraying me. I served her for years. I still serve her. And yet she brought out Giants for my brothers and me to fight with. The battle was won because Zeus and his idiot son Heracles fought together, but I did kill many a Giant with this."

"It's coated with ichor." Kimberly attempted to sniff through her broken nose. She was bleeding.

Demeter growled with her throat. "Shh. It's amazing how people want to portray me as weak, you know? I'm strong, stronger than the world will ever know. Long story short, I'm going to use this to defeat you."

"I only wanted to get to know you. I never wanted to harm you or your family at all."

"Too bad."

David ran towards Kimberly. But before he could reach her, Arion and Plutus blocked and restrained him.

"We like you, Mr. Bettencourt! We really do. We don't want to lose you too today."

"I don't care if she's going to kill me. I'd rather die helping my wife than to sit and sulk at a table with an unfortunate mustache."

"It's not my fault I can't grow a mustache. I'm her youngest kid…the youngest immortal one, anyway. I was cursed into it, okay?"

Something flung Demeter backwards, a shade. The shade transformed back into Persephone. Persephone grabbed the golden sword and threw it. "Arion, catch."

Arion, appearing out of nowhere with David in hand, caught the sword. He made it disappear. "Too easy."

"I'm sick of Mother terrorizing people for the good of Miami. There's four of us, one of her. We can take her down."

"Four?"

"David, we need you to throw Mama into Biscayne Bay. Sorry your first trip here had to end this way, but it's an emergency, and it's the only way we'll save your wife. Plutus, are you in?"

"Yeah, Sis."

"Arion?"

"Fuck yes I'm in."

"What about the pool?" David asked.

"It's chlorinated water. It won't work. We need real salt water."

Plutus appeared beside Demeter. He held her down.

"I can save your wife," Persephone continued. Mama taught me all her healing spells. She'll be okay once I get to her. But Mama needs to be taken care of first, or she'll get rid of your wife for good."

"Shut up," Demeter hissed.

"Are you sure?"

Persephone smiled. "Mama called me the Destroyer. You can trust me. But first…"

Persephone changed her mother's outfit into a purple bikini.

"I can't imagine Mama wanting her clothes wet. My brothers can grab her legs—"

That was when Demeter charged at Persephone. Before Demeter could get to Persephone, Plutus grabbed her arms and Arion her legs, making her fall to the ground again.

"Can you help us hold her?"

David shrugged. "It's not like I was doing anything this afternoon. Why not? And are these black snakes going to bite me?"

"They're supposed to be constrictors. Hold still after we pick her up and they won't wrap around you. Works with all constrictors. It's only the dumbasses that get squeezed to death."

David sighed. "All right."

David and Demeter's children picked up Demeter and took her to the edge of the pier. Demeter fought back every step of the way. Her thrashing was very powerful, causing the party to almost fall over a few times. David almost fell to his side. A constrictor started to wrap around his arm.

"Gotcha." Persephone hit the fury-snake's head with her hand.

"How did you…oh."

Persephone smiled.

Persephone was quick to help her brothers and David oppose the Fury, making sure the snakes didn't hinder their ability to make it to the pier while keeping Demeter above the ground.

Despite almost tumbling to the ground with her, the party against the Fury made it to the pier.

"No time to talk," Persephone said. "Dump her in. Ready? Go."

Much to the party's surprise, Demeter's body didn't float to the surface at all. It sank.

Black snakes swam towards the island. They dissipated.

 

Healing was never Demeter's realm. It was always Apollo's; he had the power to heal several people in a quick time span. But Demeter knew how to control fire, make it holy, and heal herself and others. The only other person that knew how to control holy fire like Demeter was Persephone. She healed Kimberly's broken nose and her bruises this way. Then Persephone led them to a bedroom.

"How many bedrooms do you have?" Kimberly asked Persephone.

"Eight. But half of the bedrooms are ours. They're like our private suites. One bedroom's for Mama's production company and one's for Plutus' catering business."

"Which means you have two guest bedrooms."

"We don't have a lot of guests. We isolated ourselves from the Greek pantheon, pretty much. We believe Mama. We stand by her. If she's an outcast, we're also outcasts. As for human guests…we've had a few, but Mama's Fury scared them off. Or killed them."

Kimberly and David looked terrified.

"There's more than our staff and that guy who was pushed in front of the train?"

"You'll have to talk to her when she gets back. It's not really my place to talk about those deaths. But there are more."

"Do you think Demeter will ever come back?"

Persephone stopped walking. "It's not like Mama to disappear like that. We stay together. Makes us stronger. I hope she does. I wanted to be her when I was a child. I still want to be her. I can do without the serial killings and the cannibalism, but I still want to be her."

"Cannibalism?" David said. He sighed. _"Dios mio."_

"Yeah, she's got to explain that to you too. But the thing is, I don't want to _replace_ her. Let me take you to the bedroom."

The guest bedroom was a king-sized bed with a bathroom attached to it. The bed matched the Art Deco style and colors of the rest of the house. There was also a drawer and a large flat screen television. Once inside, Kimberly and David crawled under the bedsheets. Persephone tucked them into bed.

"We do have clean clothes if you need them."

"We don't need them yet," Kimberly said.

"You can leave when you're ready. I'm sorry about everything. I only wish we could've done it sooner."

Persephone left their room.

Kimberly and David left the television off. They closed their eyes and decided to doze off to sleep.

But before they could doze off, they heard drops of water falling on the floor.

"Does Demeter know…" David poked Kimberly, who was still trying to sleep.

"David, it's…" She opened her eyes.

"Oh," they both said.

In front of them was Demeter, still in her swimsuit. She was soaking wet.

"It's okay. I have magic for petty things like water spots in carpet.

"This is going to take a while. I don't need a chair. I think I'll float if I tire."

Demeter started off by telling Kimberly and David the story of why and how her family left the Greek pantheon, followed by their siege in the 80s.

"There's more. There's a lot more. But…give me some time. I don't like to revisit it. What I did…that isn't what I do. Not without a purpose, no.

"I didn't come back up after you dunked me in Biscayne Baye because being in that water, sinking to the bottom because I wanted to think. And I haven't been thinking recently in either a smart or a thoughtful manner.

"Persephone was right. I don't need a sacred tree in every neighborhood in Miami. I don't need to kill _every_ person that pisses me off these days. And it's my fault. The Fury needed to be washed away. I let it grow. I tried to control it, tried to hide it, tried to deny it, but I failed every time.

"I've got a proposal. First, Plutus wanted to cater for your show by himself. He didn't know about what Persephone did until she told him. And even he was better with the news than I was with the city of Miami. I'll let him do that.

"Next…if I'm getting this right, you never cared about Francis."

David nodded. "I hate to say it, but that _culo_ needed to go."

"But you did care about Joe. I think Persephone can pull his shade from the underworld, and I'll transform him to an owl."

David blinked. "An owl."

Kimberly poked him in the side. "Askalaphos. But that was a punishment."

"He'll still be an owl, but he's not a true screech-owl. I'm going to see in I can bring him back. And then I'll have him help Arion."

"I'm confused."

"Don't be, David. Arion usually does physical tasks for my show. He was a horse of war and he still is a man of war. He misses that. I feel if Joe the owl and Arion work together for your pyrotechnics and whatnot, maybe he'll cheer up. And the house could use a pet around. Maybe Joe'll scare away some of the geckoes so people can visit.

"I've also got to admit I was stalking you earlier."

"We know."

"Kimberly, I know you know by now. You're a good detective."

"No, that's a character I made up on TV."

"Maybe you should separate your scripts from your real life." Demeter winked. "I was Chloe the librarian, a bored library patron, Melanie the Subway Sandwich artist…"

Kimberly nodded. "We _know._ "

"I was a turtle dove, listening to your conversations in your bedroom. I know you two wanted to fuck me, your words. And that would've been nice, except I know and understand you don't want anything to do with me. We should've done dates. Friend dates. Friendlier dates. Then if things happen, then, well, they happen.

"It never should've came to this, whatever this 'for the good of Miami' I was chasing. I'm sorry. "

Demeter dried herself in a second. Then she sat on the end of the guest bed. She was sniffling and moaning in pain.

Kimberly nudged David. David gave her a skeptical look. She climbed out of bed and sat beside Demeter. David shrugged and did the same.

"We believe you, Demeter," Kimberly said.

"You do?"

"We've all fucked up. It's not just you. We believe you."

"Can I be yours?"

"David?"

"She's crazy," David mouthed.

"She said she's sorry," Kimberly mouthed back.

David breathlessly sighed. "Si."

"Yes, Demeter."

"Can I be yours _now?_ "

Kimberly and David looked at each other.

"Si."

"Yes."

Demeter stopped crying. She nodded. "Take my bikini off."

David untied her top while Kimberly took off her bottom.

Demeter stood up and faced them as the two crawled up to the headboard of the bed.

"Are you sure you want this?"

Kimberly and David nodded.

Demeter climbed on the bed. She sniffled a little, then grinned. "Good. I've been starving for _years._ "

 

Demeter was able to regain her wits to coach Kimberly and David into the positions she wanted them. She had them be still as she planted kisses on their body. And when they were all warmed up, she arranged them into positions where bodies and tongues could all be in motion at the same time. Demeter knew how to pleasure her humans. Years of sex with an endless parade of mortals gave her that advantage.

Kimberly moaned and quivered at Demeter's touches. David was too out of it to speak English. When he uttered some curses in Spanish, she gave him a wry smile as he put his fingers through her hair. She understood him perfectly well; even if she is a goddess, she has lived in the area for forty years, and bits and pieces of Spanish and, by proxy, Haitian Creole, translated into fluency for her. Unlike the Haitian Creole, the Spanish varies from country to country, culture to culture, but she understood it all. David apologized for speaking in Spanish in English, but Demeter put a finger on his lips as Kimberly laughed, attempting not to climax herself.

Near Demeter's bedroom, Persephone and Arion were walking outside the bedrooms of the mansion. On Persephone's shoulder was an Eastern Screech Owl.

"An owl?" Arion said. "You think that, if Mother was here, she'd want that Joe guy to be an owl?"

"Joe didn't deserve to die. He deserves a second chance at life."

"Persephone's right, Arion," Joe the owl said. "Your mother would want that Joe guy to be an owl. But why am I an owl? I'd thought I'd be…shouldn't I be a flower or something?"

"I'll explain later. And I want you to stay with Arion."

"Yeah, because you think I'm a sarcastic sourpuss."

Persephone nodded. Her green eyes narrowed. "You're a sourpuss."

"She's not lying, dude."

They walked by Demeter's bedroom while Kimberly, Demeter and David were being pleasured at the same time.

Persephone ribbed Arion.

"But I really wanted to go join the Marines."

"And I didn't need to hear my ex-bosses fucking anyone."

Persephone laughed. "Hush, Joe. And no, you didn't, Arion." she said in a hushed voice. "She sounds _very_ happy. All of them seem happy. When was the last time she fucked someone? Um…late 90s?"

Arion nodded. "I'm guessing you're right. You're closer to her than we are."

"Let's go downstairs and tell Plutus. Mama needs the me time."

The three walked downstairs, huge grins on their faces.

 

When they were all finished, Demeter laid on top of her humans, watching them fall asleep.

Demeter rubbed their stomachs. "A little death, a warm death," she whispered.

She was about to get up when she looked at their sleeping faces again. She grinned.

She lay down on them again. "No. This time will be different."

And although she didn't need to fall asleep by them, she fell asleep, a grin on her face.


End file.
